Anthology of World Music: The Music of Laos

This is another stellar Rounder Records release, from 1999, of the fantastic series of fifty world music recordings overseen by Alain Danielou and produced by the International Institute for Traditional Music between 1968 and 1987.

The recordings are from Radio Vientiane, the Vientiane School of Music, the Palace Orchestra at Luang Prabhang and a village recording.  The mouth organ, percussive instruments of various types (gongs, kettledrums, and others), and vocals evoke the rich history of music in the land-locked nation between Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and China.

Danielou's notes give a good general background of musical traditions in the nation and explains the connection of indgenous developments with influences from China and India.  The variation in large ensemble pieces (including an excellent one drawing on the Hindu masterpiece, the Ramayana) and solo and smaller group works is notable, as well.

Rounder deserves much praise for reissuing the Danielou records on disc and having about a dozen or so of these from various parts of the world, I'm looking forward to getting as close to completing the set as possible.

Richard H. Kirk: Dasein

Released at the end of June 2017 through his Intone Productions label, Dasein is a great Richard H. Kirk album in many ways.  Recorded at intervals over a three-year period from late 2012 to late 2015, while Kirk worked on other projects, it reintroduces voice (albeit heavily treated samples of his vocalizing) and, especially, guitar, which has not been heard on any of his recordings for a long time.  These add a level of depth and richness to the music and are welcome reintroductions to his work..

The pieces are uniformly excellent, filled with the dub-influenced electronic melange that Kirk has mastered over many decades.  The titles hint at some of his usual concerns, including "Nuclear Cloud," "Radioactive Water," "Invasion Pretext," and "Sub/Antarctic/H2O," the latter appearing to have some reference to climate change (maybe).

This is a strong release from someone whose electronic music has been challenging and invigorating this listener for over thirty years and is an indication that the creative spirit is far from diminishing in Kirk's monumental body of work. 

As a sidenote, just having finished the often-difficult reading of an anthology of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, a core concern of his was the nature of dasein, or being.  So, it seemed quite a coincidence that I bought the CD last year and then followed up, unintentionally, with the purchase of the Heidegger anthology.

Winged Serpents: Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor

I was on vacation on the central California coast, blissfully tuned out from the news that, these last couple of years, have been invariably draining and maddening.  So, it was surprising and saddening to find out a while after returning that the peerless Cecil Taylor, one of my favorite musicians of all, died on 5 April, not long after his 89th birthday.

There are dozens of Taylor recordings that could be highlighted here, but the striking tribute album (and these are not always what they're intended to be) quickly assembled, produced, and released by the unfathomably productive John Zorn for his Tzadik label is an outstanding one.  As the OBI strip notes, "Cecil Taylor was a powerful and unforgettable musical force—a fearless visionary and one of the greatest musicians of the past century.  His visceral and intense performances influenced generations of musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, and creative minds of every description."

The pieces here are definitely influenced by, but not imitative of, this astounding pianist, whose music will always be a regular part of the playlist.  They reflect respect for Taylor while expressing the "heartfelt tributes" Zorn intended for the musicians to develop.  Craig Taborn, Sylvie Courvoisier, Brian Marsella, Kris Davis, Aruán Ortiz and Anthony Coleman all bring remarkable works, beautifully played and recorded with crystalline fidelity, that are really a pleasure to listen to.

A poem, also in a Taylor influenced style, by Charles Bernstein and Zorn's impressionistic album art in ink, gold and, yes, blood are also tributes.  The poem and a portion of the artwork are shown here as indications of how carefully and creatively Zorn and the others expressed their debt to the magic produced by a musician (magus?) rightly described as "this legendary genius who created a new music that transcended all genius."

Elliott Carter: 16 Compositions (2002-2009)

I finished recently a book on the music of the astounding Elliott Carter, whose work continues to amaze because of its complexity, richness, and wide range of expression.  The book was often a tough slog when it came to intricate and rigorous technical explanations of the construction of pieces and the often intimidating terminologies employed in musicology.  Still, what did come through for a total amateur was Carter's innovations in harmony, time and other structural elements, and most especially in his use of rhythm.

The book definitely made listening to Carter's work more worthwhile in trying to pick out where the composer employed his creativity and innovation.  An example of this is with 16 Compositions (2002-2009), another excellent issue in a series by Bridge Records, which produces great recordings by modern composers.  The 2010 double-disc surveys a wide range of symphonic, ensemble, solo and choral works in a period in which the composer was in his mid-90s to early 100s.

That's one of the many remarkable aspects about Carter in that he was very active making amazing music at a very advanced stage in life and doing so with all the exploratory creativity he displayed throughout his career.  In fact, he finished his last piece just three months before he died in late 2012, a few weeks shy of his 104th birthday.  So, this survey has a lot to enjoy, often in brief pieces, and featuring typically unusual instrumentation, like solo works for marimba and bassoon, along with more standard large and small group and solo types.

Reboot with G.S. Sachdev: Live in Concert

This stunning live performance by the amazing bansuri player, G.S. Sachdev, is particularly noteworthy, given that Sachdev died this past June in San Rafael, north of San Francisco.  Issued by Lyrichord, a producer of many fine "world music" recordings, the album is 78 minutes of five performances, ranging from seven to thirty-one minutes of the master, accompanied by Swapan Chaudhuri on tabla and Elb Sounders on tambura (which provides a steady drone), displaying his remarkable talent.  Unfortunately, it is not stated when and where the album was recorded.

As Sachdev wrote in the liner notes, ragas are traditionally performed at a set time of day to evoke the feelings and atmosphere of that part of the day, though he also noted "when we close our eyes, we lose our sense of time," so that an early morning raga can be performed in the late evening.

This is a more introspective and quieter concert of ragas than would be associated with, say, Ali Akbar Khan on the sarod and Ravi Shankar with his sitar, where the slow buildup to an extraordinarily fast and powerful finish was standard.  Sachdev's music is, as the notes indicate, created "to develop the raga in a calm and methodical way" and he observed that "the artist needs a sympathetic approach from the listeners" because "music starts with the artist but is completed by the audience" and "there is no separation between the two."  Listening to this great album with these thoughts in mind helps make the experience even more meaningful and entertaining.

Reboot with Pete Namlook/Bill Laswell's Outland

This 1994 collaboration between the late German electronic musician Pete Namlook (Peter Kuhlmann) and the prolific bassist and producer Bill Laswell is a trip deep into ambient sound and the first of five editions in the Outland series with the pair also producing five albums under the Psychonavigation moniker.  They also worked with Klaus Schulze on a few editions of the Dark Side of the Moog series--all for Namlook's amazing FAX Records series.

It begins with an eerie sound source of Mongolian tuva singers and instrumentation and then dissolves into a low, quiet drone.  Excepting some variation in rhythm and tones and a bit of manipulation of Laswell's bass, the 62-minute piece is an exercise in deep, dark ambience.

Outland reminds me a lot of the work of another Laswell collaborator, Mick Harris, and his Lull project, which is actually darker than this.  I'm a big fan of the Lull series of recordings, so this album is also a favorite.  I've found it to be a good recording to have on while working at the computer or in the yard (even better with headphones) or on a longer commute in the car.

Reboot with Herbie Nichols: Four Classic Albums

The reboot continues with this double-disc British compilation of four albums recorded from 1955 to 1957 from the tragically underrecorded and underappreciated pianist Herbie Nichols.  I'd only heard of him because I'd read A.B. Spellman's Black Music: Four Lives and learned a little about this amazing musician and composer who died in 1963 at age 44.

This recording captures the creativity of his writing and the stunning technique and unusual structure of his piano playing.  Critic Leonard Feather wrote in the liners to the combined volumes of The Prophetic Herbie Nichols that "his technique made [Vladimir] Horowitz and [Art] Tatum seem like bumbing amateurs," which is leaning way too far in trying to get Nichols his due.  But, Nichols was a fantastic stylist and it is clear that the trio was the way to make the most of it.

There are stellar sidemen here, including Art Blakey, Max Roach, George Duvivier, Al McKibbon and Danny Richmond and the far-sighted Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records deserves accolades aplenty for recording Nichols when no one else cared.  Unfortunately, he died young and all but ignored, but these recordings are a testament to the phenomenal talent of Herbie Nichols.

Reboot with Franz Liszt: A Faust Symphony

Time for a reboot, which means even less commentary but at least some favorites still get posted for those who might be interested.

Today, we retool this blog with Franz Liszt's A Faust Symphony.  I've read that Liszt's skills as a composer are not as highly regarded as his contemporaries, though he was a dynamic and dramatic virtuoso pianist who set hearts (especially female ones) swooning on his many tours of Europe in his younger years.

Yet, his "symphonic poems," when the mood is there, can be fascinating excursions into literature, history, characterization and dramatic symphonic expression.  The notes to this Naxos release include a negative critique from Edouard Hanslick, a prominent music critic, who complained about Liszt's "fiddling and blowing" in an attempt to make his work sound profound.

Having read Göethe's Faust a quarter century ago, but remembering the feelings evoked by that romantic work, the drama of bombast alternating with meditative passages in A Faust Symphony is a powerful musical representation of the tragic Faust and his selling of his soul to Mephistopheles (a.k.a., the Devil.)  The Orchestra of the Ferenc (Franz in Hungarian) Liszt Academy, conducted by András Ligeti, and the Hungarian State Choir perform beautifully.

When in the mood, Liszt's symphonic poems can be very enjoyable and this is an example.

Trinidad: The Sound of the Sun (The Westland Steel Band)

It's summer and this enticing recording from the stellar Nonesuch Explorer series seems particularly appropriate to discuss at this balmy time of the year.  Recorded by Bill Leader and released initially in 1967, "The Sound of the Sun" presents a dozen pieces from The Westland Steel Band, with the traditional four types of drums (guitar/alto; cello/tenor; boom/bass; and ping pong/soprano) providing the range of tonal sounds that epitomize its form of calypso music.

The liner notes by Jane Sarnoff start off with a poetic appreciation of the beauty and vibrancy of Trinidad, which forms with the smaller Tobago, and independent nation just off the coast of Venezuela.  Usually the only time we hear about the tiny island nation is during the summer Olympics, especially the impressive showing by sprinters at the London games in 2012 or the impressive career of Ato Boldon in the 1996 and 2000 games.

The music presented here comes from a tradition dating back to the late 18th century when French planters introduced Carnival and, following the abolition of slavery in the late 1830s, black and mixed-race residents took up the celebration in their own way.  When traditional conga drums were outlawed because of fears of overexcitement stirring up celenbrants, bamboo sticks (bamboo tamboo) were used and that, too, was banner in the 1930s.

Undaunted, people turned to hitting bottles partly filled with spoons and then observed that metal worked better, including car axles, tin cans, pots, containers and drums, especially the oil containers commonly found on the island.  Experimentation gradually led to the formation of steel drum bands, whose musicians became experts in tone, pitch, harmony and melody.  As Sarnoff observes, the instruments are more gongs that drums and one player plays the melody on the 32-note ping pong while the others accompany with theme variations, though the melody moves among instruments as the procession moves through the streets.

As Sarnoff concludes, "the sound is liquid—the sound of the sun on the sea, the sea against sand, feet marching through strets that hold sparkling heat and the hearts of an entire island."  While for some the music might sound repetitive on the surface, a deeper listen reveals a great deal of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic variety, making "The Sound of the Sun" highly enjoyable and fun.

Elizabeth Cotten: Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes

The name Elizabeth Cotten first came to this blogger's attention on the 1987 Firehose album If'n and its fine ballad "In Memory of Elizabeth Cotten," written and performed by the band's guitarist and singer Ed Crawford.

Years later, a couple of her albums were acquired and this Smithsonian Folkways release is the first part of an amazing story.  Cotten, who was born in 1895 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, learned to play guitar upside down in her distinctive finger-picking style as a young girl, married, raised a family, divorced and was working in a department store in Washington, D.C. when she returned a lost child to her family.

It turned out the child was Peggy Seeger of the well-known musical family, including her older half-brother Pete, the famed folk singer, and her brother Mike, compiler of this recording.  Hired to work for the Seeger family, Cotten saw a guitar on the wall of the home, stated that she used to play and "started playing again, recalling one by one many of the songs and tunes of her childhood and youth."

That led to her being recorded by Mike Seeger in 1957 and 1958 with the result being this album with the very long title, but a great many attractions.  The main one is that Cotten was remarkably dexterous and played the guitar and banjo with great senstitvity and skill.  Another is that her fragile voice rings with authenciity and the weight of experience for someone in her early sixties who'd raised a family and worked for decades.  Finally, the material is beautiful, constituting the marriage of folk and blues that made so much of the folk revival of the time so interesting.

Cotten's "Freight Train," which she wrote in her pre-teen years, became well-known, but there are other excellent songs, like "Oh, Babe, It Ain't No Lie," "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad," and a trio of medleys.  It's stated that she recorded many of the pieces on this phenomenal record at her home, while her grandchildren silently watched and listened.  This makes this one of the more interesting "live albums" you could imagine from a musician of immense talent and charm!

Sam Rivers: Fuchsia Swing Song

For this listener, Sam Rivers' many great albums from the early 1970s onward represent the best of his most daring, diverse and interesting compositions, but there is no denying the superb qualities of his debut, 1964's Fuchsia Swing Song.

It's amazing that Rivers was 41 before he cut this album at the end of that year, but at least he lived long enough to generate some really remarkable recordings.  He'd toured with Miles Davis in Japan during the summer, with young drummer Tony Williams encouraging Davis to hire Rivers, though it did not, apparently, go well with the mercurial trumpeter and leader.  The resulting album, Miles in Tokyo, is intriguing because of how different Rivers sounded compared to George Coleman, whom he replaced, and Wayne Shorter, who replaced him.

That difference is mostly in Rivers' grainy sound, his powerful sense of dynamics, crackling runs, stunning fluidity and unusual approach to melody and rhythm.  When it came to making his first recording, Rivers brought in the Davis rhythm section of Williams (who'd first played professionally at 13 with Rivers in Boston) and the great Ron Carter on bass.  Rounding out the lineup is the fine pianist Jaki Byard, who'd been in a band with Rivers years before and also was an important contributor to the bands of Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy.  It is notable that Rivers rarely recorded with a pianist, but Byard's history with the leader and his sympathetic playing makes it work well.

Fuchsia Swing Song definitely has the bop touch to it, with a strong dose of blues, especially in Byard's comping and light touch while soloing ("Luminous Monolith" even features a brief snippet that sounds like barrelhouse-style playing). Williams makes tremendous use of his amazing cymbal along with fantastic polyrhythmic work, while Carter is typically stellar in his highly supportive playing.  Given his first opportunity to showcase his playing, Rivers takes full advantage and makes full use of his abilities.  "Beatrice," named for the leader's wife, is a rare and pretty ballad, showing Rivers' ability to yield warm and still challenging solos.

Rivers went on to record a few more sides for Blue Note, which embraced the so-called "avant garde" in the mid-Sixties, signing Dolphy, Andrew Hill, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and others, but the label was sold and most of these musicians stopped recording for Blue Note by 1968.  He had a fruitful and notably freer period with Impulse in the first part of the Seventies and then recorded for many smaller labels over the years, including his own Rivbea Sound. 

Rivers died at the end of 2011 at age 88, still nowhere near as recognized as he should have been because he was one of the greatest and most distinctive composers and players in jazz for some 45 years.  Fuchsia Swing Song is where it all started and is a great introduction to the work of this unsung master.

George Crumb: Ghosts from Alhambra/Voices from a Forgotten World

George Crumb's remarkable music includes frequent references to Spain, including his fascination with the poems of the tragic Federico Garcia Lorca, and "Ghosts of Alhambra" is a seven-part suite composed in 2009 of remarkable interest based on Lorca's 1921 "Poem of the Deep Song" written for traditional flamenco performances held at the historic Alhambra.  This chamber work features a male baritone, a guitarist and a percussionist and the voice lends a sombre and forbidding aspect to the mysterious voicings of the guitar and an often rumbling of the percussion.

The "American Songbook" series by Crumb is not about standard pop fare, but an unusual look at a variety of pieces that reflect what the composer identifies as from all directions of the compass on the continent and incorporating native Indian themes, reimaginings of popular music pieces and other music reflecting the diversity of the United States.  The 2006 "Voices from a Forgotten World" turned out to be an added chapter to what was slated to be a four-part series and continued on to other parts.

There are ten pieces in this set, ranging from 1 1/2 to over 9 minutes and reflecting a great diversity of types of material.  There are two voices, a baritone and a mezzo-soprano with the instrumentation consisting of amplified piano and four percussionists employing a wide range of types.  Crumb subtitled these "A Cycle of American Songs from North and South, East and West" and there are pieces referencing native peoples, New England, Appalachia and the South, but they also reflect time periods from the 17th century to the first half of the 20th and themes varying from native concerns to labor to takes on Stephen Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer."

The songs in "Voices from a Forgotten World" also reflect myth, humor, pathos and other emotional ranges and, as is often Crumb's way, there is a great deal of foreboding and mystery to much of the cycle, while "Somebody Got Lost in a Storm" is jarring, intense and powerful with the percussion and piano reflecting the element of the storm in a dramatic fashion.

This album is the fifteenth in a series of the complete works of Crumb and Starobin's involvement is notable because, in 1981, he established the Bridge label which issued the recording.  He deserves kudos for his dedication to this great composer and issuing beautifully performed and recorded albums like this.

Sacred Rhythms of Cuban Santeria

This fascinating Smithsonian Folkways release from 1995 comprises recordings made in Cuba in 1983 and 1984 of four orus, or series of songs and rhythms designed to communicate with saints within the santería religion.  The sessions were made in temple-homes but were arranged separately from ceremonies to provide the best quality of sound.

Santería came to Cuba from the Yoruba peoples of Nigeria taken by slave traders to the Caribbean island colony of Spain where they were known as lukumís or eyó, among other names.  It appears as if the development of the religion and the sacred music associated with it represented the reconstruction by dislocated peoples of their ancient African traditions.

In the mid-1880s slavery was abolished in Cuba and former slaves headed in large numbers to cities like Havana, while other remained in the country farms or hamlets.  The concept of the cabildo, a sort of mutual aid group, brought in images of Roman Catholic saints used as "masks" for the African deities (orishas) worshipped by the former slaves and their descendants.  The name santería directly refers to these Catholic saints.  The temple-homes, overseen by a god-father or a god-mother, became the central place for worship and the production of music associated with santería.

This music is based on percussion and vocals, with a variety of instruments in the former, including the batá, a trio of hourglas-shaped drums in the African tradition with different pitches, the abwes or chequerés, which are gourds filled with netting and seeds are which are shaken so the seeds hit the outside of the gourd.  Metal instruments are also used, though the Cuban version is usually a hoe blade hit by a piece of iron.  For non-religious performance, the bembé, a cylindrical drum that can be in many different sizes, are common. 

Vocalising is usually with a soloist joined by a chorus in a call-and-response style with participants invited to join in with the chorus answering the soloist. Themes of lyrics concern Yoruba gods, events and other aspects of the inherited African tradition mixed with Roman Catholic concepts from the Spaniards in Cuba.  There are also secular lyrics about current events or people at the ceremonies with a satirical and critical bent.

This is a remarkable recording for historical as well as musical reasons and Smithsonian Folkways deserves great credit for capturing these performances and making them available.  The liner notes are particularly useful for understanding the basics of the music.

Culture: Two Sevens Clash (30th Anniversary Edition)

This classic album by Culture, the only the trio recorded with the legendary Joe Gibbs, was recorded in 1977 at an opportune time.  Reggae was an international phenomenon thanks to the rise of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear and others.  Joseph Hill, whose unmistakable keening and off-kilter vocal style and strong songwriting skills were at the center of Culture's success, worked his way through some early reggae groups and as a percussionist and harmony singer in the house band for well-known producer Coxsone Dodd at the famed Studio One.

His cousin Albert Walker invited Hill to join him and Kenneth Dayes in the African Disciples, soon renamed Culture, and the group was one of several outstanding ones that featured a lead singer and two harmony singers (Mighty Diamonds, Meditations, Abyssinians, etc.) in reggae at the time.  It was Burning Spear, however, which evidently was the most influential to the development of Culture's sound.

Hill was devoted, as Burning Spear was, to the teachings and precepts of Marcus Garvey and his concepts of black liberation, as well as to Rastafarianism, and his lyrics are filled with references to Black Star liners, African roots, the native Arawaks of Jamaica and many other themes.  He melded his ample lyrical talent with a great melodic sense and that unique impassioned vocalizing to develop an unmistakble sound.  Walker and Dayes harmonized perfectly with Hill.

As for the musicians, there's the great Sly Dunbar on drums and, though his usual bass-playing partner Robbie Shakespeare plays some guitar on the album, the bass duties are handled by Lloyd Parks.  Stalwart studio musicians like "Bubber" Waul on keyboards, Sticky on percussion, Vin Gordon on trombone, trumpeter Bobby Ellis and tenor player Tommy McCook keep things tight and moving smoothly.

There isn't a weak song on this amazing record.  While the title track drew a lot of attention because of its allusions to the "two sevens" in the year 1977, amplified by the pair of that superstitious number in the month and date of 7 July, and which led many in Jamaica to stay home from work and school that day and await over concerns of what the day might bring, every song is solid.  "Calling Rastafari," ""Black Starliner Must Come", "Get Ready to Ride the Lion to Zion," and "See Them a Come" are highlights for this listener, but this is a rare example where every track is great.

This 30th Anniversary edition, issued by Shanachie Records just a year after Hill's death after he collapsed during a concert in Berlin, contains some great photos, an essay by Lenny Kaye and comments and praise from Dunbar, Gibbs, Burning Spear, the original liner notes, and a portion of an interview with Hill about the significance of the title track.

John Coltrane: Blue Train

This 1957 recording is where John Coltrane came into his own as a leader after spending the last couple of years as a rapidly growing member of Miles Davis' great quintet with Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.  It was also the year that Coltrane kicked the heroin habit that inhibited his development and when his half-year stint with Thelonious Monk helped him advance dramatically as a musician,

This was a one-off recording deal with the famed Blue Note Records and the differences between what Alfred Lion offered and what Coltrane got in his contract with Bob Weinstein and his Prestige Records is literally clear.  The production values were so much better and Coltrane took full advantage of working at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary stdio by combining great tunes with an excellent band.

The former included the superb blues title track, the excellent up-tempo "Moment's Notice," "Locomotion," "Lazy Bird," all Coltrane originals and a cover of the old pop chestnut "I'm Old Fashioned."  Then, there's the band, which included Coltrane's mates from the Davis group Chambers and Jones, who were locked in tight on that rhythm, the fine pianist Kenny Drew, and the potent duo of trumpeter Lee Morgan, of "The Sidewinder" fame several years later, and trombonist Curtis Fuller, who is the only living member of this tremendous group.

Coltrane was in what Ira Gitler somewhat dismissively called his "sheets of sound" period, issuing blistering runs on his tenor, while also demonstrating what that moniker overshadowed, his command of phrasing, richness of sound, and deft handling of complicated passages, while his ballad work on "I'm Old Fashioned" showed the tremendous growth he'd made recently.  Morgan is powerful, passionate and intense, demonstrating great technique and power in his playing, while Fuller provides a relaxed and refined counterpoint in his playing against the intensity of the other horn players.  As for Chambers and Jones, they hold everything together beautifully.

Putting together a great slate of pieces, handling five crack musicians in a way that coalesces their talents to the service of the songs and the session, and demonstrating remarkable transformations in his musicianship reveals that Coltrane had really arrived.  There are some very good Prestige recordings in his catalog, but Blue Train stands out as the best of his late Fifties work.

I only have the disc and not the artwork for this album, but, years ago, a friend bought me a framed poster of Blue Train that has hung in my office at work for close to twenty years, so that's what the image shows.

Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A-Minor and Symphonies 1, 3 and 4

This 1990 double CD release from the German budget label Pilz provides some of the best music from Robert Schumann (1810-1856), whose life and career were cut short from mental illness, but whose massive catalog of piano works and four symphonies are among the finest music from the so-called Romantic period.

Schumann was influenced by such major figures as Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn, but his performing career on piano was ended by an injury to his right hand, forcing him to focus exclusively on composition.  He came into prominence with his piano works during the 1830s and, the next decade, branched out into symphonic work.

His muse was Clara Wieck, a virtuoso pianist and daughter of Schumann's teacher, who resisted their romance even as they married in 1840 when Schumann went to court to overcome a legal objection.  Clara was ambitious, controlling, and constantly championed her husband even as she chafed at the restraints of raising a large family (there were eight children), managing the household, and continuing her performance career.

Schumann's mental illness worsened by the early 1850s and he attempted suicide before being placed into an asylum where he remained until his death.  One of his few visitors (Clara was not allowed because of concerns of his mental state) was a young Johannes Brahms, who was a friend and who the Schumanns championed, though it was years before Brahms made his mark.

The piano concerto on this set was recorded by The Radio Symphonic Orchestra at Ljubljana in Slovenia, conducted by Marko Munih and Dubravka Tomsic as soloist, while the three symphonies were conducted by Henry Adolph and performed by the Philharmonica Slavonica.  To these untutored ears, the playing is fine, especially the concerto, and Schumann's expressive, dynamic and emotional compositions seem to come out well.  The pieces abound with beautiful melodies and pleasing harmony.

Schumann's works may be very familiar, but they are always welcome to hear again and again, because of their complexity, richness and expressiveness.

Soul of Angola: Anthologie de la Musique Angolaise, 1965-1975

Angola is a country the history of which is filled with strife, from the colonial domination of the Portuguese for some 500 years to the 27-year civil war which followed independence in 1975 and which ravaged the southwestern African nation of about 28 million (with many killed and displaced in the last forty years).

So, it was with great curiosity that this stellar two-disc recording, released in 2001 by the Lusafrica label, based in Paris, was acquired, because the time period covered was the last decade before independence when political agitation grew among Angolans.  The album's liner notes by Leonard Silva, refer to the idea "the urban Angolan musics of the 1967/70 period were born from a strong desire to oppose a cultural resistance to the colonial Portuguese power."  It was also asserted that it was impossible to separate the independence movement from the "new musical creativity rebirth," which was a form of "soft protest."

What emerges on this impressive anthology are pieces centered on treble-heavy guitar, with often infectious and driving rhythms and nods to British and French pop-rock infleuences and a variety of African and Afro-American percussion styles from the adjacent Congo (a book just finished two days ago detailed to horror of the Belgian dominance of that part of Africa), Brazil (another Portuguese colony) and the Caribbean.  This reflects another fascinating combination of musical sources in a place that stamped these with its own identity.

It was stated in the liners that, when Portuguese authorities took a new tack in 1968 in dealing with Angola, one of these was the creation of a national radio station that gave voice to the new wave of young musicians featured on this recording.  Silva observed that listeners "will be able somehow to recount one of the most important stages in the historic march of the Angolan artists, for the recognition of their musical art and culture."  While some of the musicians featured on this remarkable album died during the civil war years, Soul of Angola is a document of remarkable artistic endeavor in an era of struggle for a country still seeking stability.

Masters of Old-Time Country Autoharp

Somtimes a recording is (or a group of them are) acquired out of sheer curiosity and this great Smithsonian Folkways release is one of those.  An expanded version of a 1962 Folkways album, this disc features nearly forty short pieces played on the autoharp, an instruments invented in the 1870s as a variation of a zither. 

Several posts on this blog, mainly of music from other countries, have highlighted instruments that are related to the zither and dulcimer, most recently the post on Lily Yuan, a Chinese master of her instrument.  Here is an album focusing on performers in the Appalachian region of the southern U.S. performing on the autoharp, which reached this area as the 19th century yielded to the 20th.

The players are Ernest "Pop" Stoneman, the first person to record on the instrument back in 1924; Kilby Snow, who held the instrument upright and played what he called "drag notes," or slurs or hammering on the strings across frets; and the father-and-son duo of Neriah and Kenneth Benfield, who played duets and solo pieces on the recording.  All four men are masters, though Snow is particularly impressive for his innovative technique.  There is accompaniment on harmonica (Stoneman), guitar, and banjo, as well.

Spearheading the recording was Mike Seeger, who came from a prominent musical family that included his half-brother Pete Seeger of the famed folk group The Weavers, and who was founder of the New Lost City Ramblers during the Folk Revival of the late 1950s.  Seeger's notes are very interesting and informative as he detailed the use of the autoharp and discussed the musicians, with whom he accompanied on several tracks.  Song notes of tunes that are both traditional pieces and originals by the musicians are also notable and are by Charles Wolfe.

The sounds generated by the autoharp are clear, ringing and, to this listeners, inherently uplifting.  The problem was that the instrument needed frequent tuning, which led people to abandon it when the fad wore off and it was easier to turn to other instruments, such as banjo or guitar.  More modern versions, from the 1960s onward, were improved to avoid the need for frequent retuning.  Masters of Old-Time Country Autoharp is an excellent introduction to the instrument and the Southern tradition of playing it, even for those who might not think country, folk or bluegrass is of interest.

Ornette Coleman Quartet: This Is Our Music

After the controversial splash (or tidal wave, maybe) that the Ornette Coleman Quartet made when it played its legendary run at the Five Spot in New York in 1959, the group was signed to a major label deal with Atlantic Records.

What resulted was an amazing run of phenomenal recordings that raised a ruckus among those who thought Coleman was a fraud, in his playing and compositional and conceptual methods, but also was inspiring to a new generation of creative artists and adventurous listeners drawn to his freer ideas of performance.

The third Atlantic release, and Coleman's fifth album overall, This Is Our Music, was recorded in summer 1960 and released early the following year.  It included pocket trumpeter Don Cherry and bassist Charlie Haden from his previous work, but also featured drummer Ed Blackwell, replacing Billy Higgins.  The latter was an important part of the success of The Shape of Jazz to Come and Change of the Century, but Blackwell proved to be more than a worthy successor, with his particular way of accompanying the soloists and, as Coleman wrote in the liners, his ability to "play rhythm so close to the tempered notes that one seems to hear them take each other's places."

This Is Our Music starts off with the hard-hitting and propulsive "Blues Connotation," which easily has one of the most memorable melodies in all of Coleman's work.  This high-energy masterpiece is followed by one of the most haunting and off-kilter ballads in the composer's palette, the stunning "Beauty is a Rare Thing" (which became the title of the 1990s box set of Coleman's complete recordings for Atlantic.)

All the tunes on this album are excellent and showcase not only the fine solo work, including some of the more interesting playing by the leader in his long career, but also the staggering interplay among the four musicians as an integrated ensemble--a core component of Coleman's hard-to-articulate concept of "harmolodics."  Notably, for a composer who almost never performed covers, there is a pretty straight-ahead version of the Gershwin brothers' chestnut "Embraceable You" that stands out amid the originals.  Part of the immense appeal (or the big turnoff) of Coleman's work in those early years was his unpredictability and willingness to explore wherever the music took the players and the listeners.

Earle Brown: Folio and Four Systems

Considered to be part of the New York School of modern composers, along with John Cage, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff, Earle Brown developed an "open form" system of composition in the early 1950s that allowed for a measure of authorial intent and choice and improvisation by the performers.

While some early examples of the method were very abstract and left a great deal of room for musicians to interpret what Brown aimed for, later pieces had more concrete notational concepts in them.  In any case, the composer's ideas were a radical departure from conventional composition, even if Cage became even more open in his way of composing and Feldman retained more traditionnal forms of notation.

It's small wonder that John Zorn was greatly inspired by Brown's methods and that this recording is issued under his Tzadik label.  Zorn and the Earle Brown Foundation, celebrating what would have been the composer's 80th birthday in 2006 (he died four years prior), assembled a remarkable group of musicians for Folio and Four Systems.

The first piece, "Folio" was recorded by Brown as he performed trumpet (his main instrument) along with percussion and bass, and another work, "June 1953," was orchestrated by him withh Wolff playing piano as part of a quartet. Others on the album include the amazing vocalist Joan LaBarbara, the remarkable pianist Stephen Drury, noise musician Merzbow (Masami Akita), laptop electronic performer Ikue Mori, violinist Mark Feldman, composer and electronic musician Morton Subotnick (just highlighted on this blog), and the great trumpeter Leo Wadada Smith. 

There is a stunning variety of sounds, textures and colors on this recording that illustrate what Micah Silver, in his contribution to the informative liners, describes as "Brown's attempt to take his music to the brink.  Not to leave it there, but to visit the brink in order that he could explore his way home (wherever that would be) more freely." 

Brown is quoted writing "With FOLIO I intentionally extended the compositional aspect and the performance process as far out of normal realms as I could, just short of producing nothing at all."  The idea was to be produce work between "extremes of finite control" and "extremes of infinite ambiguity."  He also noted that truth is a mobile point on an arc between two ends of a paradox.  Translated into music, that can be very challenging for the listener, but a little patience and an open mind (for open form) can be very rewarding.

Lily Yuan: The Ancient Art Music of China

This is another great Lyrichord world music release, featuring the masterful Lily Yuan on the yangqin, a hammered dulcimer or zither.  The liner notes explain that what distinguishes the instrument from similar ones in other parts of the world is the use of bamboo hammers or beaters that provide a much different range of timbre and dynamics.

The word yangqin means "foreign stringed instrument," and it is likely, the notes continue, that it migrated from Persia, where it is known as the santur (other posts on this blog have highlighted Persian recordings including that instrument.)  Interestingly, the yangqin has only in recent decades been utilized as a solo instrument, as on this album, because it has traditionally been used to accompany other instruments in ensemble or vocalists.

Yuan was raised in Shanghai and was a child prodigy performing frequently on television and radio and, at 11, entered a major music conservatory in Beijing and performed for such dignataries as President Carter, among many others.  She studied in Shanghai and joined the faculty of the music conservatory there.  She later received a master's degree in music from the University of Toronto and began performing widely in North America.  For years, she worked and taught on the East Coast of the U.S., but is now based in Irvine, California, teaching the yangqin and piano.

The nine pieces on this amazing recording feature Yuan's remarkable abilities, not just technically (although her abilities here are stunning), but also in evoking emotional range. The performances reflect the very long historical traditions of classical Chinese music and the resonant tones on the yangqin provide a depth and shimmering quality that brings the pieces beautifully to life.

Unknown Instructors: The Way Things Work

It was really great to find that Mike Watt and George Hurley, the propulsive and creative rhythm section of the great 80s band Minutemen and then the underrated and excellent Firehose, reteamed for a new project in 2003 called Unknown Instructors.

The duo wer teamed with guitarist Joe Baiza, another veteran of the South Bay punk scene, and poet Dan McGuire, who spearheaded the project on his own dime after a long friendship with Watt, along with guest Jack Brewer, Baiza's bandmate in Saccharine Trust. The band recorded The Way Things Work in a single marathon session at a San Pedro studio in August 2003 with Baiza and McGwire producing the album for Chicago-based Smog Veil Records, which released the album a little over two years later.

McGuire's poetry is very evocative, providing fascinating vignettes of gritty street life (he's from Toledo, an old industrial city), unusual and puzzling situations, and a delivery that is filled with irony and a world-weary tone.  Behind him, Baiza plays trebly meandering lines and riffs and McGuire has said he put together the band and recruited Watt and Hurley so the guitarist could burst out with high energy playing, which didn't really happen on the record, but it was, after all, a one-day improvisational experiment.

Watt, a master at accompaniment, lays down solid grooves and interpolations in his distinctive fashion, and Hurley keeps things moving briskly by ranging through his kit with strength and a tasty range of color and texture on the traps, cymbals and bass drums.  On his tracks, Brewer's voice projects a trembly fragility and, interestingly, a sense of lightness even with the dark matter of the poetry.

Even as a first-take experiment melding poetry and improvised music that was channeled in a different and more effective way on the band's second album, The Master's Voice (look for it in a future post), The Way Things Work does work pretty well, embodying what Baiza has referred to as the "sentiment and the spirit" of the exploration of punk rock, even as it sounds very different from common expectations of what that should be.

Miles at the Fillmore: Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3

The "Bootleg Series" of live recordings by Miles Davis and various ensembles, now comprising six volumes, released by Sony Music ranging from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, can be viewed, on one hand, as an attempt to mine the vaults for further product and trade off the legacy of the legendary trumpeter, bandleader, and mercurial figure. 

Conversely, fans see these, variably, as valuable additions to his discography in which concert performances, much of which was previously unreleased (or, if so, were heavily edited) demonstrate the remarkable interplay and sonic power of the Dark Magus' groups over a radically changing period.  After all, no figure in jazz morphed musically (and sartorially) so memorably without compromising his integrity as Davis.

This third volume of performances at the Fillmore East in New York, with some additions of parts of gigs at the companion venue, the Fillmore West, in San Francisco, is amazing, not just for the often-blistering, pounding, and soaring work done by a stunning band, but, because of the context. 

Davis agreed to play shows at the historic rock venues, owned by impresario Bill Graham, as a vehicle to get his music out to younger people.  This was a very shrewd move, given the massive decline of interest by those folks in jazz from the mid-Sixties onward, but it also exposed him to often cockeyed criticism that he was selling out (yes, that 26-minute version of "Bitches Brew" on the album of the same name was the easiest way to crack the Top Ten.)

It is strange to note that Davis opened (yes, OPENED) for Laura Nyro, Steve Miller, and Neil Young and Crazy Horse, at some of these shows.  From a purely commercial perspective, it was obviously necessary (at least to Graham), but artistically, it was clear that, good as all of those performers were, Miles and his band were masters (including technically and in innovation in sound) way above the levels of the headliners.

In any case, here are staggering performances of classics of the Bitches Brew era, with the title track, "It's About That Time," and "Spanish Key" complemented by "Directions," standout from the mid-Sixties quintet, and other tunes from earlier incarnations (including strange truncated verions of "I Fall in Love Too Easily," added, perhaps, as brief quiet interludes to the bubbling cauldron of intense electric sound otherwise served piping hot to the mostly white, young audiences.)

There was a two-LP (or CD) album released by Columbia at the time, but it was heavily and interestingly edited by producer Teo Macero.  The full pieces are restored in this edition, handled by noted producer Michael Cuscuna and Richard Seidel (whose detailed liners with great photos are also great to have.)  The San Francisco performances, from April, included young sax player Steve Grossman, Chick Corea on electric piano, Airto Moreira on a variety of percussion instruments (cool additions of texture and color), Dave Holland on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. 

This was a great band, though Grossman, who was 19, was criticized for overabundance in his playing.  But, then, for the June shows in New York, Keith Jarrett was brought in on electric organ (heard through the right channel, where Corea was in the left) and his prodigious talents added to those of the remarkable Corea (the great ensemble Circle morphed from this pairing) to really enhance the sound of this unbeatable ensemble.

Miles' electric period is the favorite of this blogger, though all periods are valued for various reasons, and this 4-CD deep digging into live performance of an astounding group is really a revelation.

Mustafa al Sunni: Songs of the Sudan

This fantastic Nimbus Records release features the music of Sudanese oud master and singer Mustafa al Sunni.  Accompanied by percussionist Abd al Haziz Karar, whose work is sensitive and subtle, but highly effective, al Sunni plays his instrument with great skill and variety, while his keening vocals are beautifully done.

The liner notes do a great job of providing historical context for the music of this nation that has been rent apart by factional fighting for so many years, an irony given the many references in the essay to the wide-ranging influences in the music from many parts of northern and central Africa and beyond.  The narrowed focus of political factions has so little to do with the long tradition of musical elements that are imported and absorbed into existing local ones.

Also noteworthy are the lyrics and the emphasis on poetry, whether the songs are traditional turath, or those passed down through generations, praise songs called savra that talk about the bravery of warriors, or hagiba, classical pieces with the most intent poetic lyrics.  The intensity of these can be read in the translations provided in the notes.

Hearing the nimble playing of the oud, the excellent percussive accompaniment and the yearning singing and then thinking of the horrors that have emerged from the Sudan over recent decades, this recording is a reminder of how the music of Mustafa al Sunni represents a part of his nation's heritage and traditions that hopefully will survive the terror and turmoil.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Magic Flute

It never gets old listening to the remarkable music of Mozart, especially because of the great variety of his output, the brilliance of his compositions, and the range of emotional, humorous and series content that can be found in his work.  Whether it involves string quartets, symphonies, operas or whatever other form, Mozart's music is uniformly mindboggling.

The Magic Flute was the master's last opera and was still running in performance at Vienna when Mozart died in 1791 at age 35.  The popularity of German magic operas was at a peak at the time and the composer worked with a theater manager and director to mount the story.

It involved a Queen of the Night enlisting a prince to rescue her daughter from a high priest, though it turned out that the priest was actually leading a respectable and honorable order and the queen was evil and trying to regain control of her daughter.  A simple man accompanying the prince fails in a series of trials during the quest but is compensated with the love of a woman.

Mozart's masterful melding of instrumentation, massing and use of harmony and melody, with the voices is, even for this amateur, something to behold.  Yet, the opera is well-known for its extraordinary difficulty for vocalists because of the challenging ranges required.  From the outset, The Magic Flute was a resounding success and the composer attending many performances, registering his pride in the reception, though his death soon followed.

This recording, made in June 1993 in Budapest by the Failoni Orcehstra, conducted by Michael Halász, and the Hungarian Festival Chorus, is beautifully recorded and performed and the Naxos Records release is a pleasure to listen to.

Sandoz: Dark Continent

After the dissolution of Cabaret Voltaire in 1994, after twenty years of some of the most adventurous and compelling electronic music around, Richard H. Kirk threw himself into a prodigious period of work, releasing many recordings under a panoply of nom de plumes.

One that he'd started in CV's last phase of work and then expanded on afterward was Sandoz, launched in 1992 and named for the Swiss pharmaceutical laboratory where LSD was developed in the late 1930s.  There have been several Sandoz releases over the years and Dark Continent, which came out in 1996 on tJon Wonzencroft's great Touch label, is a particular favorite.  The album is culled from two sessions, starting with a six-song extended play that appeared in 1993 and then another quartet of pieces recorded three years later for the CD release.

Sandoz has strong elements of African rhythm and percussion, as well as reggae and dub touches (a Sandoz album, the excellent Chant to Jah, was devoted to the latter) layered in with often lush electronic sounds.  Dark Continent is a very consistent recording in terms of the quality of the pieces which always manage to provide distinctive aural touches among the steady repetition of rhythms and beats.

In late 2016, Mute Records issued a box set of Sandoz recordings from 1992-1994 including a remastered version of Dark Continent, the original of which has long been out of print and can be hard to find.  That set and a larger collection of Kirk solo work issued at the same time provide a great overview of the work of a prolific and diverse artist using electronic musical resources to always compelling effect.

Marilyn Crispell: Live in San Francisco

With John Coltrane's A Love Supreme as the spiritual inspiration and Cecil Taylor as a aesthetic catalyst, among other influences, Marilyn Crispell took her supremely gifted playing from the formalism of her training at the New England Conservatory to the improvisatory heart and soul of the pinnacle of jazz piano.

This Music and Arts Programs of America release is largely from a concert in San Francisco in October 1989 and demonstrated Crispell's talent for creative explorations of the instrument through her originals, as well as a highly personal interpretation of classic standards.  As a great bonus, excerpts from Crispell's duet performance with the great Anthony Braxton, with whom she played for several years, at a live performance at Vancouver, and a Knitting Factory in New York concert with Reggie Workman (featuring a young Don Byron on clarinet) are also included.

The first two numbers, "Penumbra" and "Zipporah" are excellent examples of how Crispell plays with spiritual and rhythmic emphasis in her original pieces.  She is not just a clone of Taylor, though the influence is very clear.  Crispell speed, intensity and precision are also tied in to a heightened sense of off-kilter melodic feeling with a nod to Thelonious Monk, whose "Ruby, My Dear" is covered beautifully and distinctively, as is a great rendition of Coltrane's "Dear Lord."  In the notes, Crispell pays homage to Braxton and his ideas of "using space and silence as much as sound, and using different textures."  Her take of the old chestnut, "When I Fall in Love" is breathtaking as she adds so much to the standard with her sense of rhythm and juxtaposition of complex chordal voicings.

And, the additional 15 or so minutes of her work with Braxton and Workman show just how sensitive and distinctiveness an accompanist she can be, whether in the duet form with the former or the sextet, including the remarkable vocalist Jeanne Lee (check her on Archie Shepp's Blase album from 1969 on BYG Actuel).  Live in San Francisco is a tremendous showcase of Crispell's artistry in all of its multidimensional aspects.

Morton Subotnick: The Key to Songs/Return

A native of Los Angeles, Morton Subotnick is a remarkable composer who works with electronics in highly compelling and very interesting ways.  Subotnick is best known for his 1968 work, Silver Apples of the Moon, which was celebrated in Los Angeles recently on the 50th anniversary of the landmark piece.  While attention is rightly being given to Silver Apples as a seminal piece of electronic music, this post looks at  Subotnick's mid-1980s works, The Key to Songs and Return —A Triumph of Reason, which are amazing works, released on New Albion Records, which has released so much great modern music, utilizing YCAMS, the Yamaha Computer Assisted Music System, with the latter completely generated through that means, while the former utilizes that with acoustic instrumentation.

The Key to Songs comprises, the liners recount, "music for an imaginary ballet" based on a pictorial collage novel by surrealist painter Max Ernst, with one of the chapters labeled "The Key to Songs."
Subotnick uses two pianos, marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, viola and cello along with YCAMS to generate a dramatic and often frenetic score that mimics Ernst's collages, which are said to be dramatic, often erotic and playing with the line between reality and fantasy.  Based solely on listening to the music, the latter point is notable in that telling acoustic from electronic instrumentation can be somewhat challenging.  The composer even wrote instructions for the musicians to exaggerate their movements so audiences could tell the difference.  The piece is dynamic and hypnotic.

Return was a commission to mark the appearance of Halley's Comet in February 1986 (it had last been seen in April 1910 and is predicted to return in July 2061).  Comets were believed in ancient days to the harbinger of ruin and destruction on one hand and the auspicious indicator of great benefit on the other.  Edmund Halley, in 1705, determined that a comet seen twenty-three years before would return about every 75 years.  Subotnick's score "depicts the comet's passage through time" and the first part reflecting the era to 1758 when the comet's return was given Halley's name and the second for the period after that and to the future.  The computer-generated music reflects music heard in the mid-1700s, specifically the work of Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti and then quiet, contemplative passages alternate with the dymanic, intense bursts of sound marking the onset of the comet and "the triumph of reason" in Halley's work.  In the second part, he evokes 18th and 19th century music (Mozart and Liszt), then ragtime for 1910, and electronic sounds for the current and future periods.

Computer and electronic music is often denounced for being cold and emotionless, but here are two fascinating recordings that show how these types can be skillfully blended with acoustic instruments to provide richness or depth or, on its own, created to bring a richness and diversity that belies that criticism.  This recording is an ear-opening exploration into the possibillites of electronic music as evocative in ways it is accused of not being.

Paco Peña & Eduardo Falú: Encuentro

This 1989 Nimbus Records  release features the stellar talents of Argentinian guitarist and singer Eduardo Falú and Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, whose work has been highlighted here before.

Encuentro is a fine encounter between two maestros from different countries and generations, but whose artistry with the Spanish guitar is brought together beautifully.  The fourteen tracks on the album feature four with Falú as sole or part composer and three that feature his rich, evocative vocalizations.  These latter seemed clearly sequenced to provide breaks amid the instrumental pieces and they do that job quite well.

There are times when liner notes provide great background information on the performers, pieces, instruments and musical traditions and there are others in which they are well-intended, but not particularly informative and can be paeans to the performers that lay it on a bit a too thick.

That is the case with Félix Grande's tribute to Falú and Peña--the words "mankind" and "arts" are capitalized; musical instruments "affirm human and divine truths"; and we are entreated to listen to the music "as if it were the mysterious turns of the wheels of our destiny."  There's much more, but the examples give plenty of an indication of Grande's expansive (get it?) essay's thrust.

Falú who had a distinguished career spanning some sixty years died in Buenos Aires five years ago at age 90, while Peña, now in his mid-seventies, released his last album four years ago but is still active with upcoming shows in London, Hong Kong and Pudong, China.  Encuentro is a gorgeous album, melding approaches from a common background with signature personal touches.

Dave Van Ronk: The Folkways Years, 1959-1961

This amazing album documents a short period of time, 1959 to 1961, when Dave Van Ronk recorded for Moses Asch's Folkways label, and there's a great deal of remarkable guitar playing and singing by a man who insisted he was not a folk singer, but a jazz singer.

Undoubtedly, Van Ronk was heavily indebted to black musicians, including blues, jazz and gospel artists including Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, and the Reverend Gary Davis, and it is great to have his recollections about those years generally and the songs on the record specifically.  He writes with great humor and irony, as well as affection for his influences and confederates.

He also was quite honest, noting that, with "River, She Come Down," the tune was "the only song I ever wrote that made me any money, and I hate it."  He considered the piece "as a guitar exercise" with lyrics consisting of "nonsensical doggerel."  But when Peter, Paul and Mary covered the tune, renamed "Bamboo," for their debut album, it "sold seven trillion copies."  Still, Van Ronk concluded, "I shared the royalties (and the chagrin)" with Dick Weissman, who came up with the chorus.

While Van Ronk also offered that he should have waited a year or two before recording the pieces and thought of the work "as a journeyman's progress report" who "starting to get the hang of it," the album is filled with some excellent fret work, distinctive singing, and potent mixtures of humor and activism.  It wasn't more than a few years before folk was passed by in favor of rock (note Van Ronk's friend Bob Dylan's decision to go electric in 1965) and Van Ronk became something of a forgotten figure, though he remained active until his death in 2002 at age 65.

This album, though, is a potent reminder of what an immensely talented musician Dave Van Ronk was and it's great that the Smithsonian put this together after its absorption of the Folkways inventory.

The Original James P. Johnson, 1942-1945: Piano Solos

Here's a stellar Smithsonian Folkways release of solo piano recordings from the mid-1940s of the breathtaking James P. Johnson (well, except, according to an AllMusic review by Scott Yanow, for two tunes by Cliff Jackson, who went uncredited.)  That still leaves plenty of classic stride piano playing by a man whose life bridged ragtime and jazz.

Recorded for Moses Asch and his Folkways Records label during the war years of 1942-1945, the album is filled with great melodicism, the left hand "striding" between the bass region and chordal playing, gorgeous fills and other elements.  Stride piano playing is known to be technically challenging, but Johnson make it sound so easy with his smooth precision.

There are so many stunning moments on this album that it's hard to highlight particular songs and the range of pieces, from Joplin to Gershwin to W. C. Handy and Johnson's own compositions, is pertty impressive and spans a range of decades.

Probably the most interesting is the marathon 12-minute "Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody," which finds Johnson using the most of his considerable resources to play an extended meditation drawing from the blues, ragtime, classical and other elements to create a masterpiece of variety unlike anything else on the album.

Kudos to Smithsonian Folkways for transferring the material from the original sources and remastering it for excellent sound, given that the recordings are seventy-five years or so old.  The liner notes also have great information on Johnson and the recordings.  As a historical document and for fantastic entertainment, it's hard to beat "The Original James P. Johnson."

New York's Ensemble for Early Music: Istanpitta

This blogger's first hint at early music was listening to a Dead Can Dance album in the early 90s, but it wasn't until some years later that a recording of medieval music played on original instruments was purchased, one of several in the collection.

Of these, one of the finest is this 1995 release on Lyrichord's Early Music Series, highlighting the excellent work of New York's Ensemble for Early Music, led by Frederick Renz and featuring guest artist, percussionist Glen Velez.  Playing period instruments, including familiar ones like lutes, bagpipes, and dulcimers, but also some obscure examples such as the ciaramella, vielle, rebec, gemshorn, and organistrum, the ensemble described itself as "A Medieval Dance Band."  That being the case, they play on this album as if they're partying like it's 1299!

Styles of performance include the estampie (or, in Italian, "istanpitta") for five of the tracks, four saltarellos and two sets of dance pairs.  As the liner notes from a University of Toronto music professor, Timothy McGee, indicate, even with the information for about 50 total works and fragments and descriptions of instruments from the era, "poetic/artistic license is always present to varying degrees" even in period literature describing the music.

Renz, in his notes, wrote that, based on what is known, he "has invented accompanying parts in two and three voices for the estampies" outside of the established melodic line.  He added that "the arrangements heard on this recording are this writer's realizations with improvisations by the members of the Ensemble for Early Music."  This, he observed, is "in the spirit of extemporization practiced by dance musicians from the middle ages to the present" and "will be interpreted anew in performances to come."

With the added support of the masterful Velez, the group's work on Istanpitta is very impressive, espcially with the clarity of the recording and the acoustics provided at the St. James Chapel at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York, where the taping was done in November 1994.  Anyone curious about or interested in early music should enjoy this wonderful work.

Pamir: Songs and Music from the Roof of the World

This sensational recording from the French label Musique du Monde features the captivating music of the Pamir mountain area of the Badakhshan region of the Central Asia country of Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, China and other republics of the former Soviet Union.

The Pamir range is not as well known as the Himalayas, but has peaks that go as high as 24,000 feet and it is a rugged but beautiful area where the famed Silk Road between China and Europe passes and Marco Polo passed through Badakhshan in 1270 to get to China.

While the music of the region dates back many centuries, study of it is relatively recent and recordings were few.  These performances were captured at community events and structures, including at weddings, funerals and dance performances.  Lutes of five and six strings, a fiddle, and a variety of percussion instruments for the basis of the music.  Eight musicians are the performers, including singers as well as instrumentalists with the eldest being in his mid-80s.

In addition to the very information and detailed liner notes, there are some great photographs of musicians and dancers in portrait and performance forms.  The sounds have a lot of influence from Persia and the Shia Ismaili Muslims who live there take a lot of their vocal stylings and lyrical content from spiritual and devotional traditions dating back centuries to poets like Rumi, Hafiz and others.

The isolation of the peoples of the region are reflected in these remarkable recordings which were made in 1991 and 1992 just after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the also show the fascinating meeting point of societies from Central Asia in a part of the world too few of us (this blogger included) in America know enough (if anything) about.

FAX Compilation 1

My introduction to the remarkable electronic sound world of Pete Namlook (real name Peter Kuhlmann—check the surname backwards) came through his many collaborations with one of my favorite musicians, Bill Laswell, in the multi-volume Psychonavigation and Outland series of recordings for Namlook's FAX label.  I have most of the entries in both series and have enjoyed them immensely.

It is always admirable when a musician working in a very uncommercial environment can create their own sustainable label and the FAX label is a good example of this.  Until his untimely death in 2012, just before his 52nd birthday, the prolific German artist released a major catalog of his own recordings and of many others through the label.

This compilation is one of several released by FAX over the years and appeared in 1994.  In addition to Namlook's work under the nom de plumes of The Putney, Air and 4Voice, there are collaborations with Richie Hawtin and Tetsu Inoue and contributions from Inoue, Atom Heart, longtime Laswell collaborator Robert Musso, and others.

This two-disc set is filled with excellent ambient pieces and works particularly well with headphones and concentrated attention.  This is also the easiest to find of the several FAX compilations, because it had outside distribution, so, for those who like ambient electronics (and this was the heyday of it), the album is well worth seeking out.

Anthony Braxton Live

With only fourteen posts last year and none so far this year, due mainly to less available time, the format here is switching to fewer words, but still promoting and highlighting inspiring music that others may enjoy.  So, we'll see how this goes.

This live recording from a 1970s stint on Bluebird Records, an imprint of the major Arista label, and produced by Michael Cuscuna with Steve Backer as executive producer, is a phenomenal effort.

It hightlights some of Braxton's finest early compositions, including combinations (Braxton often does this--mingles elements of compositions) of numbers 6, 23 and 40, performed by his quartet at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1975 and at the Berlin Jazz Days festival in September 1976.  The tour de force rhythm section at both concerts are the formidable Dave Holland on bass and Barry Altschul on drums.  Trumpeter Kenny Wheeler is the other horn player at Montreux with trombonist George Lewis at Berlin.  Braxton wields his alto, as well as soprano, clarinet and contrabass clarinet at both shows and the flute at the latter.

As Cuscuna observed in his brief liners, Braxton, Holland and Altschul were part of the brilliant, though short-lived group Circle, led by Chick Corea, and then Wheeler joined with the other three for some recordings in 1971 and future dates over the following years.  Montreux was a highlight of the band before it disbanded because, Cuscuna says, Braxton was looking for a change.

For his amazing Creative Orchestra Music from 1976, Braxton brought in Lewis and resulting performances constituted, for Cuscuna, pure magic including the last piece on this disc, which the producer reckoned  as "one of the pinnacles of collective jazz playing."

This disc is full of fantastic ensemble and solo work, as well as some of Braxton's most interesting compositions.  He's had a long career filled with many highlights, but these live performances are among the greatest this admirer has heard.